Alsatian cuisine

Alsatian cuisine is recognized as one with tradition and generosity, using quality products with a great flavour. There's the famous Alsatian choucroute (sauerkraut), traditionally simmered in white wine with potatoes, Strasbourg sausages, bacon and smoked shoulder of pork flavoured with juniper berries and cloves. Alsatian choucroute is one of the specialties of the restaurant le Gruber, as is three-fish choucroute.

If you're passing through Strasbourg you really mustn't miss the famous traditional tarte flambée. Cream, bacon and onions make this dish a classic of Alsatian cuisine.
This can be found in most restaurants in Strasbourg, notably at the Dix brasserie opposite the station, welcoming curious people arriving by train.

We continue our culinary tour with the ubiquitous "baeckeoffe" a pork, beef and lamb stew. It also contains vegetables and potatoes, all left to marinate for hours. Alsacian Winstubs make their reputation on this dish, particularly the Pfifferbriader which has made it one of its flagship dishes.

Alsatian cuisine also includes other specialties like the coq au riesling, fleischkiechles, potato sausage, presskopf, spaëtzles, Alsatian-style snails, and cervelat and Gruyère salad... A rich and varied cuisine which also extends to pâtisseries with traditional desserts like Kugelhopf, a cake with white cheese, braedeles or braedelas and of course the famous gingerbread.

Alsatian cuisine is very moreish and we invite you to discover its secrets with Restaurants Alsaciens.

History of the fork

It is often forgotten but you wouldn't be able to enjoy Alsatian cuisine without a fork! It seems simple yet forks only started to be used widely in France at the end of the 17th century.

In Italy, forks were mainly used to eat pasta and then they spread to other European countries to become one of the most widely used utensils in the world.

Forks are normally used with the prongs pointing downwards. This comes from the time of the Renaissance, when the use of forks was spreading. High society people had their coats of arms engraved into the back of the handle of the fork.